Ebola survivors can transmit virus through s3x but not sweat or saliva – WHO

The World Health Organisation has explained that male Ebola survivors may transmit the virus through s3xu@l intercourse if it remains in their semen after recovery.

However, the organisation said survivors who have met the criteria for discharge from treatment are not expected to transmit the virus through sweat or saliva. Patrick Otim, programme area manager for emergency response at the WHO Regional Office for Africa, provided the explanation in a video answering questions about Ebola and its transmission.

He said the virus can persist in certain parts of the body after clinical recovery, meaning that infected semen may continue to pose a transmission risk even after a patient has left a treatment centre. Otim said male survivors should receive counselling on safer s3x practices and have access to condoms following discharge. He also advised regular semen testing until two consecutive negative results are obtained.

According to the WHO guidance cited in the report, male survivors should practise safer s3x for 12 months where a semen-testing programme is unavailable. Where testing is available, regular testing should continue until the required negative results are recorded. Otim distinguished this risk from concerns about everyday contact with survivors who have completed treatment and met discharge requirements.

He said patients were required to have two negative blood tests before discharge, indicating that the virus had been cleared from their blood. Survivors who met those criteria were not expected to transmit Ebola through sweat or saliva, he explained. However, he warned that people who remained actively ill could transmit the virus through sweat and other infectious bodily fluids.

The explanation comes amid an Ebola outbreak involving the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Kenya, alongside an imported case confirmed in Nigeria on October 20. The Nigerian patient, described as a 42-year-old Ugandan-born woman living in Abuja, was medically evacuated to Switzerland with her husband on October 26.

Following the evacuation, the WHO said Nigeria had no active confirmed cases. Health authorities nevertheless continued monitoring contacts and maintaining containment measures. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, figures released on Tuesday, October 27, by the Ministry of Public Health put the outbreak at 10,060 confirmed cases and 4,887 fatalities.